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BEIT Alumni

Business Education Alumni Spotlights

Alumni from our Business Education Program are not only leaders in classrooms across the country; they are leaders in business and industry around the globe.

Jim Brocksmith, '65

Debbie Davidson, '83

Michelle Cronk, '02

A director of Sempra Energy in San Diego since 2001, Brocksmith is an independent financial consultant and the former Deputy Chairman and Chief Operating Officer for the U.S. operations of KPMG Peat Marwick LLP. He also is a director of AAR Corp. and Alberto-Culver Co. and former director of Nationwide Financial Services. HIs in-depth experience with public accounting issues and knowledge of corporate accounting, tax and compliance practices are important for Sempra in his role as chair of the Audit Committee. His financial credentials provide a resource that is helpful to the board given today's increasingly complex financial environment. Sempra Energy ranks 433rd on Forbes Global 2000 companies listing (2010).

A business teacher at Ben Davis High School in Indianapolis, Davidson was recognized in 2004 as the Indiana Business Educators Association's Outstanding Classroom Teacher. She also was the 2002 Wayne Township Teacher of the Year and 2003 Top Ten Finalist for Indiana Teacher of the Year. She also received the AES IPALCO Golden Apple Award in 2002. In the classroom, she strives to infuse new technology into the curriculum (programs related to web development and design) and motivate and inspire students as they put real-world skills into practice.

Michelle Cronk has earned many honors in the teaching and business fields since graduating summa cum laude in 2002. She took a position at South Central Junior-Senior High School in Elizabeth, Ind. as the only business teacher and has become very involved with her students by advising organizations such as the high school student council. She also was a driving force in establishing a Business Professionals of America (BPA) chapter.

Jason Hendrickson, '03

Jennifer Petersen, '98

Hendrickson, who teaches business at Danville Community High School, received the Emerging Professional Award from the Indiana Business Educators Association in 2006. He has served as an advisor for Danville's BPA chapter and has been a member of the Indiana Business Education Association. "My program within the College of Business allowed me to discover who I was as a person and professionally advance to become the educator that I am today," Hendrickson said. He is continuing his education at ISU by pursuing his master's in curriculum, instruction and media technology.

Received ISU's GOLD Award. Served as a student teacher for Debbie Davidson at Ben Davis while a student at ISU. She now teaches in the business department there. She was the recipient of the National Business Education Association Award of Merit her first year out of college, and earned the North Central Business Education Association Distinguished Service Award as Emerging Professional of the Year in 2002. She has returned to ISU as a presenter for the Business Education Clinic and was part ofNetworks Financial Institute K-12 Financial Literary Task Force.

Information Design, End-User Computing Alumni

Jared Brown has been at Epic in Madison, Wis., since 2008. There he works as a systems engineer in the Computer and Technology Services division. He is responsible for working with software, hardware and server systems. Prior to Epic, Brown worked in financial planning with Legacy Financial Group in Kokomo, Ind.